’=  ^ . 


NEW  CHAPTERS 

ON 

THE  AWAKENING  OF  CHINA 


BY 

BISHOP  JAMES  W.  BASHFORD 


THE  BOARD  OF  FOREIGN  MISSIONS 
OF  THE  METHODIST  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 
CHINA  CENTENNIAL  COMMISSION 
150  HFTH  AVENUE.  NEW  YORK 
Price  Five  Cents 


Printed  May.  1908 


NEW  CHAPTERS 

ON  THE 

AWAKENING  OF  CHINA 


“And  these  from  the  land  of  Sinim.” 

As  sixty  thousand  copies  of  “The  Awakening  of 
China”  have  been  called  for,  I assume  that  the  reader 
is  familiar  with  the  progress  of  the  empire  from  1900 
to  1905,  so  I shall  aim  to  bring  the  report  down  from 
that  date  to  the  present. 

When  I wrote  the  first  article  for  The  Christian 
Advocate  on  “The  Awakening  of  China”  some  three 
years  ago,  I had  never  heard  that  phrase  apphed  to 
the  Chinese  people.  It  was  only  after  receiving  re- 
ports from  more  than  a hundred  missionaries,  that  I 
ventured  to  send  the  facts  to  The  Christian  Advocate. 
Even  then  I feared  that  my  report  might  be  regarded 
as  the  exaggerated  estimates  of  an  enthusiast,  and 
not  the  sober  result  of  careful  investigation.  This  re- 
port does  not  present  another  startling  view  of  China, 
but  aims  to  confirm  the  thesis  of  1905. 

The  booklet  of  1906  was  in  error  on  one  detail  of  the 
awakening:  namely,  the  adoption  of  the  Bible  as  a 
textbook  in  the  government  schools  of  two  provinces 
ruled  by  Chang  Chih  Tung.  But  the  fact  of  the 
awakening  of  the  empire  and  the  other  details  given 


2 


New  Chapters  on 


were  confirmed,  in  1907  by  more  than  nine  hundred 
missionaries  present  from  every  province  at  the  great 
Centennial  Conference  of  Missions  in  Shanghai.  These 
missionaries  unanimously  adopted  resolutions  em- 
bodying the  conviction  that  the  Christian  church  now 
has  in  this  vast  empire  such  an  opportunity  as  has 
never  confronted  the  church  before  in  China,  such  an 
opportunity  as  has  never  been  surpassed  in  the  history 
of  the  church,  such  an  opportunity  as  may  never 
occur  again  in  the  history  of  the  world.  Thus  the 
judgment  of  one  formed  in  1905  was  confirmed  by 
the  judgment  of  nine  hundred  missionaries  after  two 
years  of  further  developments.  Note  some  concrete 
facts  upon  which  this  conviction  is  based. 

Chapter  I.  Intellectual,  Civil  and  floral  Progress 

First,  in  proof  of  the  new  intellectual  life  of  the  em- 
pire, I spoke,  while  in  America  two  years  ago,  of  the 
decree  which  made  western  learning  one  condition  of 
all  future  office  holding  in  the  empire  as  “the  most 
spectacular  change  of  modern  times.”  I used  the 
word  “spectacular”  in  characterizing  the  decree  be- 
cause it  was  not  to  go  into  effect  for  ten  years,  and 
many  missionaries  thought  it  was  only  a paper  decree 
issued  to  captivate  the  foreigners.  But  at  the  very 
time  I was  thus  characterizing  the  educational  decree, 
a supplementary  decree  was  issued,  putting  the  reform 
into  immediate  effect.  This  proves  that  the  original 
decree  was  issued  in  good  faith,  and  not  for  mere 
spectacular  purposes.  The  original  and  supplementary 
decrees  do  not  prescribe  that  every  future  official  must 


The  Awakening  of  China 


3 


be  a modern  degree  man;  there  are  not  sufficient 
officials  as  yet  trained  in  the  new  learning;  hence  all 
who  now  hold  degrees  received  under  the  old  regime 
are  eligible  to  appointment.  But  all  future  degrees 
must  certify  to  the  holder’s  proficiency  in  western 
learning  in  order  to  make  him  eligible  to  official  ap- 
pointment in  China.  The  decree  has  already  been  put 
so  far  into  operation  that  examinations  have  been  held 
in  Peking  for  the  highest  degree,  and  in  these  applicants 
were  allowed  to  choose  the  language  in  which  they 
would  take  the  examination,  and  some  took  the  exam- 
ination in  English  instead  of  Chinese;  this  is  unparal- 
leled in  the  Hterary  history  of  China.  Again,  com- 
petitive examinations  in  western  subjects  have  been 
held  for  the  selection  of  students  to  be  sent  to  America, 
while  in  Chentu,  the  capital  of  the  great  Szechuen 
Province,  the  examination  stalls  have  been  entirely 
destroyed  and  the  brick  used  for  building  modern 
schools.  Thus  western  learning  is  already  the  standard 
of  education  for  the  officials  of  the  empire.  It  was  the 
demonstration  in  .1905-6  of  the  genuineness  of  the 
educational  reform  which  sent  fifteen  thousand  young 
man  to  Japan  in  a single  year  for  the  western  learning, 
and  some  three  or  four  thousand  more  to  Europe  and 
America — a far  wider  and  swifter  movement  in  educa- 
tion than  even  the  Japanese  made  in  their  eagerness 
for  the  western  learning,  a far  larger  number  than  ever 
went  from  America  to  Europe  for  university  training 
in  a single  year.  This  reform,  which  is  now  in  full 
progress,  revolutionizes  the  intellectual  training  which 
has  prevailed  among  four  hundred  million  people  for 


4 


New  Chapters  on 


twenty-five  hundred  years.  It  promises  to  become  the 
greatest  single  change  which  has  ever  taken  place  in 
the  intellectual  history  of  mankind. 

Another  sign  of  the  intellectual  awakening  is  the 
demand  for  books.  Doctor  Griffith  John  of  Hankow 
told  me  in  1905  that  whereas  he  was  unable  to  give 
away  the  Bible  fifty  years  ago,  the  sales  of  the  Central 
China  Tract  Society  were  then  aggregating  a million 
copies  of  tracts,  of  portions  of  the  Bible,  and  of  the 
Bible  a year.  The  statement  seemed  startling.  But 
I now  bring  back  the  report  that  the  sales  of  this  same 
Central  China  Tract  Society  for  1907  aggregated  a 
million  and  a half  copies,  an  increase  of  fifty  per  cent 
since  the  report  of  two  years  ago.  The  Presbyterian 
Press  at  Shanghai  published  a million  six  hundred 
thousand  copies  of  religious  books  and  tracts  in  1907 — 
a large  increase  over  1906.  The  British  and  Foreign 
Bible  Society  in  Shanghai  reports  that  its  sales  in  that 
city  for  1907  were  1,400,000  copies — so  great  an 
increase  during  the  past  year  as  to  tax  their 
resources  to  the  utmost.  The  Commercial  Press,  es- 
tablished by  the  pupils  of  Doctor  Young  J.  Allen  of 
the  Methodist  Church,  South,  is  selling  a million  dollars 
(Mexican)  worth  of  school-books  a year  and  is  unable 
to  supply  the  demand.  This  is  only  one  of  several 
publishing  houses  in  that  city.  Streams  of  litera- 
ture are  pouring  from  the  presses  in  Peking,  Hong- 
kong, Canton,  Hankow,  etc.,  as  well  as  from  Shanghai. 

Second,  turning  to  political  progress,  the  city  of 
Tientsin,  the  metropolis  of  North  China,  with  a popu- 
lation of  a million  and  a quarter  on  July  5,  1907, 


5 


The  Awakening  oi  China 

held  the  first  municipal  election  ever  known  in  the 
history  of  the  Chinese  empire.  Yuan  Shih  Kai,  the 
man  of  power  in  China  today,  believes  that  the  Chinese 
from  their  centuries  of  village  government  and  of  guild 
government  are  far  more  ready  for  republican  institu- 
tions and  indeed  are  far  more  democratic  than  the 
western  world  dreams.  In  proof  of  this,  last  year  he 
successfully  established  municipal  government  in  this 
northern  metropolis  of  the  empire.  Note  the  require- 
ments for  voting  in  the  first  city  in  China  ever  holding 
a municipal  election.  Each  voter  must  be  a male 
citizen,  twenty-five  years  of  age,  born  in  Tientsin,  or 
he  must  have  lived  in  Tientsin  for  five  years  and  be 
worth  two  thousand  taels;  and  all  the  voters  must  be 
able  to  read  and  WTite.  These  four  classes  are  de- 
barred the  franchise:  all  who  have  ever  failed  in  busi- 
ness; all  who  are  now  engaged  in  any  disreputable 
business,  like  selling  opium,  etc.;  all  who  are  opium 
smokers;  Buddhist  and  Taoist  priests.  Passing 
through  Tientsin  recently,  I saw  a lecture  hall,  capable 
of  accommodating  more  than  a thousand  listeners, 
and  was  told  that  half  a dozen  such  halls  have  just 
been  opened  in  the  city  in  which  illustrated  lectures  on 
western  geography,  western  science,  western  inven- 
tions, etc.,  are  delivered  two  or  three  times  a week  to 
audiences  which  fill  the  haUs  to  overflowing.  If 
Tientsin  persists  in  demanding  this  high  standard  of 
morality  and  intelligence  in  her  voters,  possibly  fifty 
years  hence  American  cities  will  be  sending  delegations 
to  China  to  learn  the  secret  of  successful  municipal 
government. 


6 


New  Chapters  on 


It  is  significant  that  while  Buddhist  and  Taoist  priests 
are  denied  the  franchise  by  a pagan  ruler  on  account 
of  their  ignorance  and  superstition  and  their  oppo- 
sition to  all  progress,  our  Chinese  ministers  of  the 
Gospel  are  freely  admitted  to  this  privilege.  This  is 
due  to  the  fact  that  wherever  Christianity  has  been 
introduced  it  has  been  followed  by  w'estern  learning, 
western  science,  western  medicine,  and  western  in- 
ventions. In  proof  that  we  are  winning  in  China,  not 
only  the  lowest  classes,  but  the  intelligent  middle 
classes  of  the  empire  is  the  fact  that  our  own  church 
in  the  Szechuen  Province,  two  thousand  miles  west  of 
Shanghai,  has  a membership  ninety  per  cent  of  whom 
are  adult  men,  and  every  one  of  whom  is  able  to  read 
a Bible  as  compared  with  some  twenty  to  thirty  per 
cent  of  the  men  outside  of  the  church  in  that  province 
who  are  able  to  read.  Do  you  wonder  that  a dis- 
tinction is  made  between  our  ministers  and  Buddhist 
and  Taoist  priests? 

Third,  in  moral  progress,  we  are  able  to  report  a 
vastly  increased  impetus  toward  the  abolition  of  foot- 
binding. Mrs.  F.  D.  Gamewell,  then  Miss  Mary  Por- 
ter, after  much  prayer  and  after  consultation  with  the 
other  missionaries  of  our  Board  in  North  China,  opened 
a school  for  girls  in  Peking  in  1872  to  which  only  girls 
were  admitted  whose  parents  consented  to  unbind 
their  feet.  At  first  this  condition  was  severely  criti- 
cised by  the  Chinese,  and  its  wisdom  was  doubted  by 
some  visitors  and  missionaries.  This  great  reform, 
setting  free  the  womanhood  of  this  vast  empire,  for 
which  our  churches  struggled  so  nobly  and  against  such 


7 


The  Awakening  of  China 

immense  odds  thirty-six  years  ago,  is  now  gaining 
such  an  impetus  that  the  Chinese  themselves  outside 
the  church  are  carrying  it  forward.  The  Dowager 
Empress  recently  established  several  schools  for  girls 
in  Peking,  and  the  royal  princesses  also  have  estab- 
lished schools  for  girls  in  the  Chihli  Province,  and  these 
have  insisted  that  every  girl  entering  the  royal  schools 
shall  observe  the  same  condition  of  unbinding  her  feet 
which  the  women  of  our  mission  established  in  1872. 
The  Empress  Dowager  and  several  governors  recently 
have  issued  proclamations  urging  the  women  to  unbind 
their  feet.  At  the  present  rate  of  progress  it  looks  as 
if  the  womanhood  of  China  would  be  unfettered  physic- 
ally within  the  next  fifty  years.  Doctor  Arthur  Smith 
said  of  a meeting  in  Chentu  last  February  that  the 
awakening  of  Chinese  women  is  one  of  the  greatest 
changes  among  womankind  recorded  in  history. 

The  reform  against  opium  also  has  made  remarkable 
progress  during  the  last  two  years.  The  officials  of 
the  Chinese  empire,  and  especially  the  Chinese  people, 
have  inaugurated  a genuine  crusade  against  the 
greatest  curse  which  threatens  the  Chinese  empire. 
Mr.  Morrison,  the  Peking  correspondent  of  the  London 
Times,  in  a recent  speech  in  London,  said:  “The  prog- 
ress of  China  during  the  last  ten  years  is  one  of  the 
most  surprising  phenomena  of  recent  history.  Since 
my  return  to  London  I have  met  with  skepticism  in 
regard  to  these  progressive  movements,  and  especially 
in-  regard  to  the  abolition  of  opium.  With  that 
skepticism,  I do  not  find  myself  in  agreement.  The 
awakening  of  the  consciousness  of  nationality,  the 


8 


New  Chapters  on 


growth  of  the  native  press  with  its  two  hundred  news- 
papers, the  spread  of  education,  the  increased  efficiency 
and  economy  of  the  Chinese  army,  the  attempt,  im- 
perfect as  it  naturally  is,  to  bring  reform  into  different 
departments  of  the  administration,  are  features  of 
modern  China  full  of  promise  for  the  future.” 

As  a concrete  illustration  of  the  progress  in  opium 
reform,  three  years  ago  in  travelling  through  the 
Chungking  prefecture,  containing  a population  of 
some  three  to  five  million  people,  we  saw  from  one- 
fourth  to  one-third  of  the  land  in  opium.  Last  January 
we  travelled  through  the  same  prefecture  and  no  mem- 
ber of  the  party  discovered  a single  poppy  growing. 
The  Chungking  official  had  forbidden  the  planting  of 
the  poppy,  and  the  order  had  been  universally  obeyed. 
In  other  parts  of  the  province  the  campaign  against 
opium  had  not  been  so  fully  carried  out.  But  per- 
sonal observation  and  the  reports  of  the  two  hundred 
missionaries  at  the  Chentu  Missionary  Conference 
from  all  parts  of  Szechuen  lead  to  the  conclusion  that 
in  large  parts  of  this  greatest  opium-growing  province 
in  the  empire,  about  one-half  as  much  opium  was 
planted  in  1908  as  was  planted  in  1907.  As  the 
government  decree  allows  ten  years  for  the  complete 
abolition  of  opium,  the  progress  which  has  been  made 
during  the  first  year  is  full  of  encouragement.  If  the 
foreigners  in  the  port  cities  vdll  cooperate  with  the 
Chinese  in  closing  opium  dens  and  disfranchising  opium 
smokers,  if  Great  Britain  will  surrender  the  fateful 
boon  which  she  secured  as  the  result  of  the  opium  war 
and  permit  China  to  prohibit  the  importation  of  opium. 


9 


The  Awakening  of  China 

and  if  other  nations  will  respect  the  integrity  of  the 
empire  and  permit  the  Chinese  to  devote  their  energies 
to  internal  reforms,  we  believe  the  Chinese  will  uproot 
the  opium  traffic  and  the  opium  habit,  as  they  up- 
rooted the  liquor  traffic  three  thousand  years  ago. 

Chapter  II.  Spiritual  Progress 

First,  when  I went  to  China  four  years  ago,  we  had 
twenty- two  thousand  members  and  probationers  in 
the  entire  empire.  We  now  have  over  thirty  thousand 
members  and  probationers,  a gain  of  thirty-seven  per  . 
cent.  Some  of  you  will  recall  the  story  of  the  village 
elders  who  offered  us  their  temple  for  service  and 
asked  us  to  baptize  all  the  people  of  the  village. 
Plainly  it  was  impossible  for  us  to  baptize  people  and 
receive  them  into  the  church  before  they  understood 
the  Gospel.  But  the  money  for  which  I asked  two 
years  ago  was  readily  subscribed,  the  temple  was  ac- 
cepted, we  now  have  a school  and  religious  services 
in  this  former  heathen  shrine,  and  every  family  of 
the  village  has  become  Christian. 

On  the  island  of  Haitang  we  are  now  offered  four 
or  five  additional  temples  which  we  will  open  as 
churches  as  soon  as  we  can  secure  one  thousand 
dollars  to  refit  them.  Rev.  Huong  Pao  Seng  and 
Rev.  Harry  Caldwell,  delegates  to  the  General  Con- 
ference of  1908,  express  the  conviction  that  one  mis- 
sionary with  Chinese  helpers  in  that  island  can 
enroll  twenty  thousand  church  members  in  twenty 
years  as  compared  with  thirty  thousand  members 
whom  we  have  been  able  to  gain  in  the  entire  empire 


10 


New  Chapters  on 


with  our  whole  missionary  force  during  the  last  sixty 
years.  Similar  gains  have  been  made  in  parts  of  the 
empire.  The  harvest  indeed  is  plenteous,  but  the 
laborers  are  few.  Pray  ye  therefore  the  Lord  of  the 
harvest,  that  He  will  send  forth  laborers  into  His 
harvest. 

Second,  we  are  also  able  to  report  remarkable 
progress  on  the  subject  of  Christian  unity  during  the 
last  two  years.  We  have  already  reported  the  intense 
eagerness  of  the  Chinese  for  western  education,  and 
that  as  many  as  fifteen  thousand  young  men  from 
China  went  to  Tokyo  in  a single  year  in  search  of  the 
western  learning.  Under  the  devoted  and  intelligent 
service  of  the  representatives  of  the  Young  Men’s 
Christian  Association,  some  of  these  young  men  were 
converted  and  desired  baptism.  But  the  Association 
clearly  could  not  itself  organize  a Christian  church 
and  administer  the  ordinances  without  abandoning 
its  fundamental  attitude  as  a helper  to  all  the  churches 
and  becoming  a distinctly  ecclesiastical  organization. 
Hence  the  Association  came  to  the  Shanghai  Confer- 
ence last  year  and  asked  the  Conference,  in  view  of 
the  providential  opportunity  in  Tokyo,  first,  not  to 
send  half  a dozen  or  more  churches  to  open  work  in 
Tokyo  among  the  Chinese  and  engage  in  a struggle 
to  secure  membership,  but  second,  to  select  one 
Protestant  church  to  represent  our  entire  Protestantism 
in  the  work  among  the  Chinese  students  in  Japan. 

The  conditions  were  unprecedented,  but  the  Shanghai 
Conference  rose  to  the  demands  of  the  occasion  and 
by  a unanimous  vote  selected  a Committee  of  Fellow- 


The  Awakening  of  China 


ship  with  full  power  to  choose  one  church  to  represent 
all  the  Protestant  churches  in  China  in  the  work 
among  these  leaders  of  the  empire.  On  the  motion 
of  the  two  Chinese  members  of  the  committee,  our 
church  was  unanimously  selected  for  this  responsible 
position.  The  selection  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  and  the  committal  to  us  of  this  important  task 
of  representing  Christianity  among  the  yoimg  men 
who  are  to  be  among  the  future  leaders  of  China  is  in 
the  view  of  Doctor  Goucher  the  greatest  honor  which 
has  come  to  our  church  in  the  Far  East. 

Do  not,  however,  expect  great  immediate  results 
from  this  work.  Remember  that  these  young  men 
in  a large  measure  come  from  pagan  homes;  they  have 
a pagan  inheritance;  they  are  surrounded  by  another 
people  who  are  largely  pagan.  Remember  that  in 
almost  every  boarding  house  they  are  as  freely  solicited 
to  the  social  vice  as  was  Joseph  in  the  house  of  Potiphar; 
and  they  know  not  the  God  of  Joseph.  Remember 
that  they  are  seeking  a preparation  for  official  life  in 
China  and  that  official  life  in  China  at  present  is  so 
based  upon  graft  that  they  cannot  become  Christians 
and  then  enter  upon  the  career  for  which  they  are 
seeking  preparation. 

But  while  we  may  not  expect  large  immediate 
results,  we  must  bear  in  mind,  on  the  other  hand,  that 
we  are  presenting  Christ  to  the  future  leaders  of  the 
empire;  that  we  are  presenting  Him  to  these  leaders 
at  the  formative  period  of  their  lives;  that  along  with 
the  western  civilization,  western  ideas,  and  western 
ideals,  which  these  young  men  are  seeking,  their  minds 


12 


New  Chapters  on 


at  least  are  open  to  the  western  religion.  The  mere 
presentation  of  the  Gospel  to  young  men  at  this  turn- 
ing point  of  their  lives  mil  have  a profound  influence 
upon  the  entire  official  attitude  of  China  toward 
Christianity  during  the  next  fifty  years.  Moreover, 
out  of  the  chosen  few  who  have  already  accepted  Christ 
and  are  passing  through  the  fires  of  temptation,  we  are 
praying  that  some  may  prove  as  great  administrators 
for  the  four  hundred  million  people  of  China  as  Joseph 
proved  for  the  ten  or  fifteen  millions  of  Egj’pt.  We 
therefore  fully  agree  with  Doctor  Goucher  that  this 
is  the  greatest  honor,  and  the  greatest  responsibility, 
which  has  ever  come  to  Methodism  in  China.  And 
yet  I hold  that  an  even  higher  honor  will  be  put  upon 
the  other  churches  by  God  for  denying  themselves 
and  inviting  us  to  represent  them  than  can  ever  come 
to  our  church  by  discharging  this  duty,  however  well 
she  may  do  the  work. 

Third,  further  progress  toward  the  federation  of  our 
churches  was  made  and  heartier  cooperation  secured 
among  the  Christians  in  China  at  the  recent  Chentu 
Conference.  In  company  with  Doctor  Arthur  Smith, 
I went  last  winter  to  Chentu,  a journey  of  fifty  da5's 
from  Shanghai.  The  three  western  provinces, 
Szechuen,  Kweichou,  and  Yunnan,  form  an  empire  in 
themselves  with  a population  of  some  ninety  million 
people.  Two  himdred  missionaries  of  ten  missionary 
boards  gathered  for  the  Chentu  Conference.  In  divid- 
ing up  our  territory  so  as  to  have  as  little  overlapping 
as  possible  and  so  as  to  cover  as  large  an  amount  of 
the  field  as  possible,  the  question  arose:  in  case  territory 


PROGRESS  OF  A QUADRENNIUM 


Comparative  Statistics  of  the  Missionary 
Work  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  in  China 
for  the  years  1903  and  1907 


COMPARATIVE  STATISTICS  CHINA  MISSIONS  1903-1907 


11  11  1 .11 

1903 

1907 

Increase 

Percent 

op 

Gain 

Church  Membership: 

Full  Members 

12,085 

17,597 

5,512 

45.6 

Probationers 

10,006 

12,885 

2,879 

28.7 

Total 

22,091 

30,512 

8,421 

38.1 

Inquirers,  inc.  Baptized  Children 

11,972 

25,873 

13,901 

116.1 

Total  who  have  left  Heathenism 

34,063 

56,385 

22,322 

65 . 5 

Sunday  Schools — Number 

354 

533 

179 

50.5 

Number  of  Sunday  school  Scholars 

13,174 

18,497 

5,323 

40.4 

Epworth  Leagues,  Number  of  Chapters 

113 

116 

3 

2.6 

Number  of  Leaguers 

3,201 

3,457 

256 

7.9 

Educational  Work: 

Number  of  Theological  and  Biblical  Schools 

2 

7 

5 

250.0 

Enrollment 

45 

124 

79 

175.5 

No  Report 

16 

Enrollment 

No  Report 

337 

Number  of  Colleges 

2 

5 

3 

150.6 

Enrollment 

455 

1,046 

591 

129.8 

Number  of  Boarding  and  High  Schools 

31 

29 

Enrollment 

1,554 

2,272 

718 

46.2 

Number  of  Day  and  Other  Schools 

284 

396 

112 

39.4 

Enrollment 

5,504 

9,380 

3,876 

70.4 

Total  Number  of  Schools 

319 

453 

134 

42.0 

Total  Enrollment 

7,558 

13,159 

5,601 

74.1 

Medical  Work: 

Total  Number  of  Hospitals. 

11 

23 

12 

109.0 

Total  Number  of  Dispensaries 

14 

29 

15 

107.2 

Total  Number  of  Ward  Patients 

2,758 

4,674 

1,916 

69.4 

Total  Number  of  Dispensary  and  other  Treat- 

ments 

84,199 

191,627 

107,428 

127.5 

Missionary  Force: 

Number  of  Missionaries  Board  of  Foreign  Mis- 

sions 

56 

80 

24 

42.8 

Number  of  Missionaries’  Wives 

42 

66 

24 

57.0 

Number  of  Woman’s  Foreign  Missionary  Society 

Missionaries 

58 

82 

24 

41.3 

Total  Missionary  Force 

156 

228 

72 

46.1 

Chinese  Workers: 

Ordained  Preachers 

112 

123 

11 

9.8 

IJnordained  Preachers 

149 

463 

314 

210.7 

Local  Preachers 

277 

273 

Exhorters 

429 

249 

Bible  Women 

207 

328 

12i 

58.4 

Other  Workers 

109 

217 

108 

99.0 

Total  Number  of  Workers 

1,283 

1,653 

370 

28.8 

Number  or  Churches  and  Chapels  Owned 

240 

391 

151 

62.9 

(Many  additional  rented) 

Contributions  of  Chinese  Church — 

Contributed  for  Self-Support,  including  Home 

♦Mexican 

♦Mexican 

♦Mexican 

Missionary  Society 

$16,404.09 

$30,355.09 

$13,951.00 

85.0 

Total  Other  Contributions 

16,577.07 

32,089.71 

15,512.64 

93.5 

♦♦Total  Contributions  Chinese 

$32,981.16 

$62,444.80 

$29,463.64 

89.3 

Average  per  Member  and  Probationer 

SI.  49 

$2.04 

$.55 

36.9 

Contributions  of  Missionaries  to  same 164,031 . 00  Mexican 

♦Two  dollars  Mexican=one  dollar  American  money. 

♦♦Educational  and  Medical  fees  not  included;  only  voluntary  offerings  Chinese. 


The  Awakening  of  China 


13 


is  left  wholly  to  one  church,  will  that  church  receive 
as  in  good  standing  a Chinese  member  from  any  other 
church  in  West  China  who  may  move  into  that  terri- 
tory, on  a letter  from  the  church  of  which  he  has  been 
a member  and  of  the  missionary  under  whose  care  he 
has  been,  stating  that  he  has  abandoned  idolatry  and 
has  a clear  Christian  experience?  In  a word,  in  divid- 
ing our  forces  and  agreeing  not  to  trespass  on  each 
other’s  fields,  will  each  missionary  recognize  every 
other  missionary  in  West  China  as  a representative  of 
our  common  Christianity?  In  raising  this  question, 
it  was  distinctly  stated  that  while  the  various  missions 
were  to  receive  persons  into  membership  without 
putting  upon  them  any  additional  burdens,  neverthe- 
less the  church  receiving  the  new  member  from  another 
church  would  be  at  liberty,  after  he  had  been  received, 
to  administer  any  further  rites  which  the  member, 
after  he  had  been  instructed,  might  wish  to  have 
administered.  With  this  understanding,  over  two 
thirds  of  the  missionaries  present  voted  upon  the 
question  and  every  vote  cast  was  in  favor  of  the  propo- 
sition. The  Christian  churches  of  America  took  a 
great  step  forward  in  the  organization  of  the  Federa- 
tion of  Churches  in  1906;  but  the  American  churches 
will  do  well  if  within  the  next  twenty-five  years  they 
can  reach  the  position  which  the  churches  of  West 
Cliina  attained  in  1908. 

I may  add  without  boasting  but  with  profound 
gratitude  to  God,  that  on  the  unanimous  invitation 
of  the  Committee  of  Arrangements  I administered  the 
sacrament  of  the  Lord’s  Supper  at  the  close  of  the 


14 


New  Chapters  on 


Conference  to  Missionaries  of  the  Church  of  England, 
of  the  Baptist  Church,  of  the  Presbyterian,  Congrega- 
tional, and  Methodist  Church,  and  of  the  Friends, 
members  of  all  these  churches  joining  freely  and  with- 
out distinction  in  partaking  of  the  emblems  of  the 
body  and  blood  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

Upon  the  whole,  therefore,  there  is  here  presented, 
not  the  report  of  a single  person  who  had  been  in 
China  two  years,  but  the  report  of  over  nine  hundred 
missionaries  throughout  the  empire,  some  of  whom 
have  been  in  China  for  fifty  j'^ears,  that  China  is 
awakening  and  opportunities  are  multiplying  far 
more  rapidly  than  the  Christian  churches  are  meeting 
them.  We  bring  you  the  report  of  the  operation  of 
reform  educational  decrees,  revolutionizing  the  in- 
tellectual life  of  the  empire.  We  bring  you  the  report 
of  the  increase  by  leaps  and  bounds  in  the  publication 
of  books  on  western  learning,  and  especially  of  the 
Bible.  We  bring  you  the  report  of  the  successful 
organization,  under  the  leadership  of  the  greatest 
statesman  of  the  empire,  of  a republican  form  of 
government  in  the  metropolis  of  the  north.  We  bring 
you  the  report  of  the  remarkable  progress  made  during 
the  last  two  years  by  the  Chinese  in  the  abolition  of 
foot-binding  and  of  opium.  We  bring  you  the  report 
of  the  remarkable  honor  and  responsibility  which  has 
come  to  Methodism  in  the  selection  of  our  church, 
perhaps  as  occupying  the  golden  mean,  to  represent 
the  common  Protestantism  of  China  in  presenting 
the  Gospel  to  the  thousands  of  young  men  in  the 
Japanese  capital,  who  are,  many  of  them,  to  become 


PROGRESS  OF  A QUADRENNIUM 


Comparative  Statistics  of  the  Missioneury 
Work  of  the  Methodist  EpiscopeJ 
Church  in  China 
for  the  years  1903  and  1907 


COMPARATIVE  STATISTICS  CHINA  MISSIONS  1903—1907 


1903 

1907 

Increase 

Percent 

OF 

Gain 

Church  Membership: 

Full  Members 

12,085 

10,006 

17,597 

12,885 

5,512 

45.6 

2,879 

28.7 

22,091 

11,972 

34,063 

30,512 

25,873 

56,385 

8,421 

13,901 

22,322 

38.1 

116.1 

Total  who  have  left  Heathenism 

65.5 

354 

533 

179 

50.5 

13,174 

113 

18,497 

116 

5,323 

3 

40.4 

2.6 

3,201 

3,457 

256 

7.9 

Educational  Work: 

Number  of  Theological  and  Biblical  Schools 

2 

45 

7 

124 

5 

79 

250.0 

175.5 

No  Report 
No  Report 

2 

16 

337 

5 

3 

150.0 

455 

1,046 

591 

129.8 

31 

29 

1,554 

2,272 

718 

46.2 

284 

396 

112 

39  4 

5,504 

9,380 

3,876 

70.4 

319 

453 

134 

42.0 

7,558 

13,159 

5,601 

74.1 

Medical  Work: 

11 

23 

12 

109  0 

14 

29 

15 

107.2 

Total  Number  of  Ward  Patients 

2,758 

84,199 

4,674 

191,627 

1,916 

107,428 

69.4 

Total  Number  of  Dispensary  and  other  Treat- 

127.5 

Missionary  Force: 

Number  of  Missionaries  Board  of  Foreign  Mis- 

56 

80 

24 

42.8 

42 

66 

24 

57.0 

Number  of  Woman^s  Foreign  Missionary  Society 

58 

82 

24 

41.3 

156 

228 

72 

46.1 

Chinese  Workers: 

Ordained  Preachers 

112 

123 

11 

9 8 

Unordained  Preachers 

149 

463 

314 

210.7 

Local  Preachers 

277 

273 

Exhorters 

429 

249 

Bible  Women 

207 

328 

12i 

58  4 

Other  Workers 

109 

217 

108 

99.0 

Total  Number  of  Workers 

1,283 

1,653 

370 

28.8 

N UMBER  OF  Churches  and  Chapels  Owned 

240 

391 

151 

62.9 

(Many  additional  rented) 

Contributions  op  Chinese  Church — 

Contributed  for  Self-Support,  including  Home 

♦Mexican 

$16,404.09 

♦Mexican 

$30,355.09 

32,089.71 

♦Mexican 

$13,951.00 

15,512.64 

85  0 

16,577.07 

93.5 

$32,981.16 

$62,444,80 

$29,463.64 

89.3 

$1.49 

$2.04 

$.55 

36.9 

Contributions  Chinese  to  the  Centennial  Collection  (Part  included  in  above) 840,353 . 72  Mexican 


Contributions  of  Missionaries  to  same 164,031 .00  Mexican 

*Two  dollars  Mexican=one  dollar  American  money. 

♦♦Educational  and  Medical  fees  not  included;  only  voluntary  offerings  Chinese. 


The  Awakening  of  China 


15 


the  future  leaders  of  the  empire.  We  bring  you  the 
report  of  the  providential  progress  toward  Christian 
fellowship  and  Christian  cooperation  among  the 
Protestant  churches  for  the  redemption  of  the  empire. 
Surely  these  facts  amply  confirm  my  earlier  report 
on  the  awakening  of  the  empire. 

Chapter  III.  China  To-morrow 

The  emergence  of  the  Pacific  Basin  as  the  chief 
theater  of  the  world’s  activity  in  the  twentieth  cen- 
tury is  now  foreshadowed.  What  part  are  the  leading 
nations  of  the  earth  to  play  in  the  drama  which  is  to 
be  enacted  around  that  ocean? 

We  take  a hopeful  view  of  Russia.  A recent  trip 
across  northern  Asia  on  the  Trans-Siberian  Railway 
reveals  a strip  of  country  in  Siberia  some  three  hundred 
and  fifty  miles  north  and  south  by  some  three  thousand 
miles  east  and  west,  much  of  it  rich,  black  soil,  very 
similar  to  southern  Canada  and  the  northern  row  of 
American  states.  We  can  well  accept  the  statement 
of  LeRoy  Beaulieu  that  Siberia  alone  has  nine  hundred 
thousand  square  miles  of  arable  land.  Russia’s  fair- 
haired, blue-eyed,  stalwart  peasants  are  unsurpassed 
for  natural  strength  and  vigor.  If  Russia  liberalizes 
her  institutions,  establishes  public  schools,  prohibits 
the  liquor  traffic,  and  grants  her  people  freedom  of 
conscience  and  the  Word  of  God,  we  may  ultimately 
expect  a population  of  three  or  four  hundred  million 
people  within  the  bounds  of  that  vast  empire  who 
will  contribute  their  fair  share  toward  the  Christian- 
ization of  the  world.  But  imperative  internal  reforms 
present  tasks  so  overwhelming  and  the  people  move  so 


16 


New  Chapters  on 


slowly  that  Russia  during  the  next  half  century  may 
be  able  to  furnish  only  shght  help  in  recasting  the 
civilization  of  the  Pacific  Basin. 

We  may  well  marvel  at  the  sudden  and  splendid 
emergence  of  Japan  into  western  civilization.  But 
however  favorably  we  may  estimate  the  prospects  of 
Japan,  it  is  simply  incredible  that  a people  numbering 
only  forty-five  million  and  acknowledging  themselves 
unequal  in  industry  and  commerce  to  the  Chinese  can 
ever  absorb  or  supplant  their  neighbors,  four  hundred 
million  strong. 

I hold  a favorable  judgment  of  the  unrest  arising 
among  the  three  hundred  million  of  India  and  reckon 
much  upon  their  English  guidance.  But  however 
much  their  half-century  start  of  China  in  western 
civilization  and  their  dash  of  Arj'an  blood  promise 
them  control  of  the  Pacific  Basin,  plainly  they  are  two 
thousand  miles  further  removed  from  the  activities  of 
that  basin  than  are  their  Chinese  neighbors.  More- 
over, wherever  the  Indians  and  Chinese  meet,  as  in 
Burma,  Penang,  Singapore,  and  Sumatra,  all  onlookers 
recognize  the  distinct  superiority  in  industrj'  and  com- 
merce of  the  Chinese  race. 

The  United  States,  with  her  present  leadership  of 
the  race  in  wealth  and  inventions,  with  her  youthful 
and  unexhausted  energies,  now  pushing  to  a rapid 
conclusion  the  Panama  Canal  which  will  put  even  her 
eastern  shores  three  thousand  miles  nearer  China  than 
is  Europe  and  mth  the  probability  of  increasing  her 
population  within  her  owm  territory  to  four  or  five 
hundred  million  people  before  the  close  of  the  century 


17 


The  Awakening  of  China 

is  destined  to  exercise  a dominant  influence  in  the 
Pacific  Basin  during  the  twentieth  century. 

China,  now  numbering  four  hundred  million,  a 
nation  so  virile  that  she  doubles  her  population  every 
eighty  years,  a nation  with  the  possibility  before 
her  of  overflowing  into  the  three  hundred  and  sixty- 
five  thousand  square  miles  of  Manchuria  and  into  the 
more  than  a million  square  miles  of  fertile  tropical 
lands  upon  the  south,  in  all  human  probability  will 
have  a population  rising  toward  eight  hundred  million 
before  the  close  of  the  twentieth  century.  Any  candid 
study  of  the  future,  therefore,  forces  upon  us  the 
conviction  that  the  people  of  the  United  States  and 
the  people  of  China  have  every  prospect  of  dominating 
the  Pacific  Basin  in  the  twentieth  century.  Whether, 
therefore,  we  will  or  not,  we  Americans  and  we  Chris- 
tians must  play  a great  part  during  the  next  one 
hundred  years:  and  the  only  question  is  whether  we 
shall  play  that  great  part  well  or  ill.  We  are  not  a 
nation  or  a church  which  can  stand  aside  and  see  the 
battle  of  the  world  go  on.  We  have  been  thrust  by 
Providence  into  the  center  of  the  conflict.  The  race 
has  compassed  the  globe,  and  the  sons  of  the  newest 
west  now  stand  on  the  borders  of  the  Pacific  and  look 
into  the  eyes  of  the  sons  of  the  oldest  east.  Christ’s 
church  and  the  last  great  paganism  on  earth  now  face 
each  other,  and  we  shall  either  gloriously  succeed  or  ’ 
else  ignobly  fail.  The  opportunity  is  the  greatest 
which  has  confronted  the  Christian  church  since  the 
days  of  Luther,  if  not  since  the  days  of  Paul. 


18 


New  Chapters  on 

Chapter  IV.  The  Divine  Providence 

No  man  can  form  a just  estimate  of  the  probable 
future  of  China  and  the  other  great  nations  of  the 
earth  without  reckoning  with  the  Divine  Providence. 
We  caimot  in  a spirit  of  blind  optimism  conceal  from 
ourselves  the  fact  that  the  tasks  which  confront  us  at 
home  and  abroad  are  absolutely  beyond  our  wisdom 
and  our  strength.  The  church  still  has  before  her 
the  evangelization  of  two  thirds  of  the  human  race, 
and  the  far  greater  task  of  the  Christianization  of  the 
w'hole.  We  must  abolish  drunkenness,  the  strife  be- 
tween capital  and  labor,  worldliness  and  the  social  evil. 
We  must  Christianize  our  politics,  our  art,  our  litera- 
ture, and  make  the  golden  rule  supplant  the  rule  of 
gold.  Who  is  sufficient  for  these  things?  Only  as  al- 
mighty God  guides  us  by  His  wisdom,  heartens  ns 
with  His  courage,  and  fills  us  with  His  strength  shall 
we  be  able  to  succeed.  But  Christianity,  which  has 
already  been  the  source  of  several  civilizations,  is 
rising  unwearied  by  past  tasks  and  undaunted  by  the 
problems  which  confront  her  to  inaugurate  a new  era. 
Nor  are  there  wanting  signs  of  a fresh  manifestation 
of  the  same  Divine  Providence  which  has  guided  us  in 
the  past.  Historians  recognize  two  great  eras  in  the 
history  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  upon  earth — the  era 
of  the  incarnation  and  the  era  of  the  reformation. 
Is  a third  era,  similar  to  these  great  epochs  in  history, 
now  dawning  upon  Christendom?  God  chose  the 
Mediterranean  Basin  with  its  eighty  million  people 
as  the  theater  for  the  activities  of  the  first  era;  the 
Atlantic,  with  its  five  hundred  million  people,  as  the 


The  Awakening  of  China 


19 


theater  for  the  second;  He  selects  the  Pacific,  including 
the  Indian  Ocean,  with  its  eight  hundred  million  as 
the  theater  of  the  coming  era.  God  inspired  the 
Greeks  to  perfect  a language  as  the  medium  for  pre- 
serving His  truth  and  for  spreading  it  among  the  eighty 
million  of  the  Mediterranean  Basin.  He  guided  Guten- 
berg in  the  invention  of  movable  types  for  the  spread 
of  His  truth  among  the  five  hundred  million  of  the 
Atlantic  Basin.  He  guided  missionaries  in  translating 
His  word  into  the  language  of  India,  China,  Malaysia, 
Mexico,  and  South  America,  for  its  spread  among  the 
eight  hundred  million  of  the  Pacific  Basin.  Not  rest- 
ing with  inspiring  Gutenberg  God  has  also  guided  us 
in  the  improvements  of  the  printing  press,  the  adoption 
of  the  penny  post,  and  in  the  discovery  of  the  telegraph 
and  the  telephone,  the  use  of  steam  and  electricity, 
thus  turning  the  world  into  one  great  neighborhood. 

God,  having  granted  man  freedom,  is  compelled  to 
wait  upon  free  moral  agents  for  the  carrying  forward 
of  His  plans.  Hence  He  was  compelled  to  choose  as 
the  political  powers  of  the  first  era  Judea,  which  failed 
Him  in  the  crisis  and  delivered  up  the  Lord  to  cruci- 
fixion; Greece,  which  frittered  away  her  liberties  in 
petty  jealousies;  and  Rome,  who  unconsciously  built 
the  roads  and  preserved  order  for  the  first  generations 
of  evangelists  but  who  always  regarded  Christianity 
with  suspicion  and  at  last  threw  herself  in  a life  and 
death  struggle  against  the  church.  God  secured  as 
the  political  powers  for  the  second  era  the  European 
governments  of  the  sixteenth  century,  fighting  between 
themselves  indeed  the  great  battles  of  the  reformation, 


20 


New  Chapters  on 


but  all  of  them  nominally  Christian,  and  all  of  them 
far  more  Christian  in  reality  than  Hellas  and  Judea 
and  Rome.  God  has  secured  as  the  political  powers 
which  largely  will  dominate  the  third  basin  the  nations 
of  the  Anglo-Saxon  world  who  now  rule  sixty  per  cent 
of  the  human  race  and  are  far  less  bitterly  divided, 
far  kinder  to  the  weak,  far  more  Christian  in  spirit 
than  the  warring  principalities  of  the  reformation  era. 

But  the  power  which  alone  can  inaugurate  the  new 
era  is  Jesus  Christ — the  Creator  of  the  world,  the  Light 
and  Life  of  the  race.  God’s  chief  aim  in  earthly  history 
is  to  bring  men  into  union  with  Himself  through  Jesus 
Christ.  To  this  end  He  inaugurated  the  first  era  by 
Pentecost.  But  Christ  was  imperfectly  apprehended 
by  the  followers  of  the  apostles,  and  the  church  of  the 
early  centuries  largely  lost  His  presence  and  His  help. 
God  inaugurated  the  second  era  by  revealing  to 
Luther  the  great  truth  of  salvation  by  faith.  This 
indeed  resulted  in  a church  in  the  seventeenth  and 
eighteenth  centuries  wider  spread  and  stronger  than 
the  church  of  the  early  centuries.  But  the  children 
of  the  Reformation  were  diverted  from  the  divine  goal 
by  wars  and  worldliness  and  soon  sank  into  a dead 
conformity.  God  inaugurated  the  third  era  with 
Wesley’s  discovery  of  Christian  experience.  Wesley 
did  for  theology  what  Bacon  did  for  science.  The 
Christian  experience  which  Wesley  discovered  is  the 
exact  counterpart  in  the  spiritual  realm  of  Bacon’s 
discovery  of  experiment  as  the  test  for  truth  in  the 
material  realm.  Each  called  the  world  back  from  the 
theory  of  abstract  speculation  to  the  realities  of  life. 


The  Awakening  of  China 


21 


Wesley’s  discovery  already  has  been  apprehended  and 
appropriated  by  the  entire  evangelical  church  and  by 
the  saints  of  the  Roman  Catholic  and  Greek  Churches ; 
it  is  in  perfect  accord  with  the  scientific  tendencies  of 
the  age. 

Go  ye  into  all  the  world  and  make  disciples  of  all 
nations  is  the  goal  of  history  which  Christ  sets  before 
the  church.  Christ  passed  beyond  Judaism  and  led 
Paul  after  Him  to  find  the  Greek  and  Roman  world 
in  the  first  era.  He  passed  beyond  the  Greek  and 
Roman  world,  leading  Augustine  and  Ulfilas  with 
him  to  discover  our  Saxon  and  Teutonic  ancestors  in 
the  second  era.  He  is  passing  beyond  the  western 
world,  accompanied  by  ten  thousand  missionaries,  to 
find  the  last  one  of  the  belated  races  in  the  third  era. 
If  the  hand  of  God  is  seen  in  the  strange  meeting  of 
Judea  and  Hellas  and  Rome  in  the  Mediterranean 
Basin  in  the  first  era;  in  the  Reformation,  the  dis- 
covery of  printing,  the  discovery  of  the  new  world 
and  the  emergence  of  the  Atlantic  Basin  with  its  five 
hundred  million  people  in  the  second  era;  surely 
prophetic  souls  will  recognize  in  the  gathering  of  eight 
hundred  million  around  the  Pacific  Basin,  in  the  trans- 
lation of  the  Bible  into  all  the  languages  of  the  earth, 
and  in  the  fellowship  of  the  modern  church  with  a 
living  Christ  through  the  scientific  method  of  expe- 
rience the  presence  among  His  children  of  the  living 
God  by  whom  and  for  whom  and  in  whom  all  things 
consist. 

The  common  people,  perhaps  dimly  and  half  con- 
sciously, more  by  instinct  than  through  reason,  are 


22 


New  Chapters  on 


beginning  to  realize  that  God  is  calling  them  to  prov- 
idential tasks  in  the  redemption  of  the  race.  The 
Laymen’s  Missionary  Movement  is  the  most  significant 
spiritual  enterprise  thus  far  in  the  twentieth  century; 
and  other  churches  have  led  us  in  this  movement. 
But  Methodism  distinctly  has  led  the  other  churches 
in  placing  special  gifts  upon  the  altar  for  the  crises 
which  now  confront  us.  The  bishops  of  India  asked 
for  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars  as  a jubilee 
offering  for  the  magnificent  work  which  has  been  ac- 
comphshed  in  that  empire;  and  the  church  laid  the 
gift  upon  the  altar.  After  conference  with  our  mis- 
sionaries, I returned  to  America  to  ask  for  a similar 
amount  for  China,  not,  I confess,  from  any  strong 
faith  at  that  time  that  the  amount  could  be  raised,  but 
from  the  conviction  that  I ought  to  place  the  facts 
before  the  church  and  trust  the  Lord  and  the  people 
for  the  results.  It  is  not  necessary  to  rehearse  at 
length  the  various  stages  in  the  struggle;  the  hearty 
cooperation  of  the  bishops  in  signing  the  appeal  and 
in  giving  it  endorsement  in  the  Conferences  and  upon 
the  platform  and  in  relieving  me  from  part  of  my  Con- 
ferences that  I might  work  for  China;  of  my  struggle 
during  the  summer  of  1906  with  malaria,  contracted 
in  China;  of  the  offer  of  a noble  layman  to  give  one 
hundred  thousand  dollars  if  my  faith  rose  to  the 
point  of  asking  the  church  as  a whole  to  raise  four  hun- 
dred thousand;  of  the  six  months’  spiritual  struggle 
before  the  conviction  was  born  that  the  church  and 
this  friend  would  contribute  $500,000;  of  the  splendid 
response  of  the  Woman’s  Board  that  they  would  try 


The  Awakening  of  China 


23 


to  secure  one  hundred  thousand  dollars;  of  my  return 
to  China  and  of  the  call  to  aid  in  the  China  famine, 
of  the  tens  of  thousands  of  lives  saved  by  the  gifts  of 
Americans  for  famine  relief,  and  of  the  gratitude  of 
the  people  of  the  famine  district  to  America  for  saving 
their  lives  and  of  their  openness  for  the  Gospel;  of 
the  absorption  of  time  in  the  famine  relief  and  our 
fear  that  the  Centennial  funds  would  suffer  from  the 
famine  offerings;  of  my  agreement  with  the  Cen- 
tennial Commission  to  return  to  America  for  a two 
months’  campaign  in  the  summer  of  1907  if  my  strength 
permitted  and  the  interests  of  the  campaign  demanded 
it;  of  the  conviction  of  the  bishops  that  the  need  of 
presenting  China  and  also  of  Episcopal  service  de- 
manded my  presence  in  America  for  the  fall  and 
winter  of  1907-08;  of  my  own  conviction  that  I ought 
not  to  leave  without  supervision  the  great  interests 
in  China  for  which  the  General  Conference  had  made 
me  in  some  measure  responsible  by  fixing  my  residence 
in  Shanghai;  of  the  panic,  greatly  disturbing  business 
interests  of  Americans  and  sweeping  our  generous 
friend  into  bankruptcy  so  that  his  pledge  cannot  be 
counted  for  the  present;  of  the  heroic  giving  of  the 
missionaries  and  friends  in  China  and  of  the  Chinese 
to  aid  the  Centennial  Offering;  of  the  splendid  achieve- 
ments of  the  Woman’s  Board  in  meeting  its  pledge  of 
one  hundred  thousand  dollars;  of  the  great  and  lasting 
service  rendered  China  by  the  editors,  by  the  secre- 
taries of  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions,  by  the  field 
secretaries,  by  the  China  Centennial  Commission,  and 
especially  by  Doctor  Gamewell  and  such  younger 


24 


New  Chapters  on 


workers  as  Keeler,  Fahs,  and  Elliott;  of  such  provi- 
dential aid  that  in  spite  of  the  famine  and  the  financial 
panic,  all  the  gifts  of  the  men  and  women  in  China  and 
America  reached  not  simply  the  two  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  dollars  we  originally  thought  of  asking 
for,  not  simply  the  three  hundred  thousand  dollars  we 
did  ask  for,  but  four  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
dollars,  not  counting  the  one  hundred  thousand  dollars 
our  friend  had  hoped  to  give.  “Not  by  might  nor  by 
power;  but  by  my  spirit,  saith  the  Lord.” 

We  do  not  wish  any  church  which  has  once  con- 
tributed to  this  centennial  fund  to  take  a second 
offering  in  order  to  enable  Methodism  to  reach  the  five 
hvmdred  thousand  dollars.  But  in  ^^ew  of  our  near 
approach  to  the  goal  of  our  faith  and  hope  for  China, 
in  view  of  the  inspiration  which  success  in  this  enter- 
prise will  lend  to  every  other  heroic  struggle  in  the 
church,  and  in  view  of  the  deep  needs  and  great  pos- 
sibilities of  our  work  in  the  empire,  ■null  not  every 
pastor  who  has  not  yet  done  so  give  his  people  an  op- 
portunity to  present  their  gifts  before  the  close  of  the 
Centennial  Offering,  May  31,  1908.  We  must  not 
mar  the  gracious  feeling  in  the  church  by  an  effort 
to  reach  a mere  numerical  sum.  Above  all,  we  must 
not  leave  the  impression  that  five  hundred  thousand 
dollars  once  raised,  the  church  is  through  with  China, 
as  if  four  hundred  million  people  could  be  evangelized, 
educated,  healed,  and  Christianized  and  their  civiliza- 
tions transformed  by  half  a million  dollars  1 We  must 
not  embarrass  the  general  collections  of  the  church, 
especially  the  missionary  collection.  We  must  not 


The  Awakening  of  China 


25 


forget  India  and  Japan  and  South  America,  Europe 
and  Africa,  and  the  islands  of  the  sea.  But  I still  hold 
the  conviction  born  of  prayer  that  God  will  put  it  into 
the  hearts  of  our  pastors  and  churches  to  place  the  five 
hundred  thousand  dollars  upon  the  altar  for  China  and 
that  our  local  churches  and  all  other  causes  will  prosper 
all  the  more  through  the  triumph  of  this  enterprise. 
Surely  the  Divine  Providence,  who  has  guided  our 
people  thus  far,  has  still  greater  work  for  us  to  do. 
Let  us  apprehend  that  for  which  we  are  apprehended 
by  Jesus  Christ  and  so  meet  responsibiUty  that  each  at 
last  may  be  able  to  say  udth  the  Master,  “Father,  I 
have  finished  the  work  thou  gavest  me  to  do.” 


